My wife drives a Y Reg 1.3 Ka with 60,000 miles on the clock. It has just past the M.O.T. with no problem. The only thing is the engine tappets are quite noisey and need some adjustment. Can anyone of you experts out there give me the basic procedjure for doing this job It would help me if you can give me the Feeler Gauge gap size, tools required to do the job, will I need to replace the rocker box gasket and finally do you adjust the tappets when the engine is hot or cold.

Exhaust valves should be 0.5mm and inlets 0.2mm and are checked / adjusted cold.

Gasket is a cork item which usually breaks up when you move the cover. Even at a Ford dealer they're only a couple of quid, so you might as well replace it.

You just need a spanner for the rocker cover bolts, and another for the rocker arm bolts / adjusters, plus of course a good set of feeler gauges.

The rocker arm adjusters wind in against a spring which is supposed to eliminate the need for a locknut. Therefore, you just turn the bolt clockwise to reduce clearance, and anti-clockwise to increase it - there are no locknuts to worry about.

It's very simple and logical when you see it - this engine is very old school.

The only thing I can add to DP's excellent procedure is finding the correct crankshaft position for each cylinder adjustment.

This is to ensure you are measuring valve clearance when on the base circle radius of the cam.

Rotate the engine until you see the In and Exh rockers of one cylinder start and finish moving for very little movemnt of the crankshaft (known as "on the rock"). Say this is No 3 cyl, then adjust No 2 cyl clearances, as No 2 is at or near TDC on compression stroke, and No 1 is on the exh/ inlet phase.

As stated just do it to spec, it may br a little noisy as the camshaft and other things are worn but its better to be loose than too tight. I know somebody over on another forum who took his car to have the tappets done, 3 days later his engine started smoking, when his friend removed the rocker he discovered a a bent pushrod. It seems they over tightened it, he managed to get a new engine and all is now well.

A bent pushrod? That one must have been so tight the valve was wide open to start with.

The usual effect of having the gaps too small is failure to run at all after a few seconds, or if you are really unlucky burnt exhaust valves and seats resulting in loss of compression but requiring head-off treatment.

When I changed the head gasket on my Plymouth, I made the simple mistake of setting the gaps with the engine cold. It started fine and ran for a few seconds, then just stopped. It would do the same thing repeatedly. So I opened the gaps, let the engine get warm and reset them. Perfect. But other engines have to be set cold.

I'd use a socket on the rocker adusters as they can crack if an uneven force is applied. They aren't very robust. A socket will spread the force more evenly than a spanner. You will also be able to get a longer lever on them as they are sometimes hard to get moving.

Yeah I think his friend actually then replaced the bent rod but after jsut a few miles it conked out again, I think the engine was very worn and should have been left alone. I was told by mechanic too its always best to leave these tappets alone on older engines with lack of service history etc.